The United States Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. This specific Executive Order (E.O.) 13045 - Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks - was issued by President William J. Clinton in 1997. The order applies to economically significant rules under E.O. 12866 that concern an environmental health or safety risk that EPA has reason to believe may disproportionately affect children. Environmental health risks or safety risks refer to risks to health or to safety that are attributable to products or substances that the child is likely to come in contact with or ingest (such as the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink or use for recreation, the soil we live on, and the products we use or are exposed to). When promulgating a rule of this description, EPA must evaluate the effects of the planned regulation on children and explain why the regulation is preferable to potentially effective and reasonably feasible alternatives.

This document is the final version of the "Data Management for Global Change Research Policy Statements." The overall purpose of these policy statements is to facilitate full open access to quality data for global change research. They were prepared in consonance with the goal of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and represent the U.S. Government's position on the access to global change research data.

This document summarizes progress made thus far by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) programme element of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). The document also outlines the implementation plans for most of the Foci, Activities and Tasks currently within the PAGES remit. The plan first introduces the scope and rationale of PAGES science and explains how PAGES is organized structurally and scientifically to achieve its goals. For all of the palaeosciences relevant to IGBP goals, PAGES has sought to identify and create the organizational structures needed to support continued work and progress. Models intended to predict future environmental changes must, in order to demonstrate their effectiveness, be capable of accurately reproducing conditions known to have occurred in the past. Through the organization of coordinated national and international scientific efforts, PAGES seeks to obtain and interpret a variety of palaeoclimatic records and to provide the data essential for the validation of predictive climate models. PAGES activities include integration and intercomparison of ice, ocean and terrestrial palaeorecords and encourages the creation of consistent analytical and data-base methodologies across the palaeosciences. PAGES has already played a crucial role in the archiving, management and dissemination of palaeodata. This is fully summarized in the recently published …

This document describes plans for the implementation of the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) programme element of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). This Implementation Plan is an international response to the need to understand how global change, in the broadest sense, will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations comprising a major component of oceanic ecosystems. The Plan describes the consensus view, developed under the auspices of the GLOBEC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC), on the research required to fulfill the scientific goals laid out in the GLOBEC Science Plan (IGBP Report No. 40). The Implementation Plan expands on the Science Plan, drawing on the results and recommendations of workshops, meetings, and reports thereof, that have been sponsored under the auspices of GLOBEC. The GLOBEC research programme has four major components which, are described in detail in this Implementation Plan; the research Foci, Framework Activities, Regional Programmes, and Integrating Activity. These are summarized in the Table of Contents, and in schematic diagrams within the text. They are the elements that have been planned by, and will be implemented under the auspices of, the GLOBEC SSC. National GLOBEC programmes may select those aspects of this international framework which are relevant …

In this USGCRP seminar, issues about the impact of drought and floods in the news and feel it in the cost of goods and services would be discussed. Each year seems to bring with it droughts or floods that cause billions of dollars in economic losses and untold societal disruption to major parts of our nation. (Drought in the Midwest in 1988 and in the Southeast in 1989. Floods in the Mississippi River Basin in 1992 and in California in 1994). Around the world the situation is the same, even worse in some instances. What causes these extreme events and conditions? Can we predict the occurrence of such events as a means of being prepared, and reducing the impacts of extreme climate events? Can we be better prepared? What success to date has there been in predicting such events? What's the prognosis?

This document provide a brief overview of Dr. Eric J. Barron's talk on the results of the USGCRP-sponsored forum to evaluate the results of model simulations of climate change, a cross-section of leading climate and Earth system modelers and skeptics considered what is known with certainty, what is known with less certainty, and what remains uncertain.

In this USGRP Seminar, Dr. Epstein discusses the implications of climate change and the emergence of diseases and viruses such as the hantavirus, dengue fever, ebola, cholera, malaria, and eastern equine encephalitis. These signals of global change can be costly to health, commerce, tourism, and transportation.

There is increasing evidence that the global climate is changing: global temperatures have risen about 1 F over the past century, mountain glaciers are melting back, sea level is rising. But how is the climate of the United States changing? Are these changes like others being experienced around the world? Is the US climate becoming more or less variable? Are we having more or fewer climatic extremes? This USGCRP seminar addresses these questions in the context of the anthropogenic influences on atmospheric composition and climate

In this USGRP Seminar, speakers answer the following questions: what is the status of the Earth's ozone layer? Is the Montreal Protocol working? How much time will be necessary for nature to restore the ozone layer? What are the human health effects of increased ultraviolet radiation associated with depletion of the ozone layer? Who is at risk?

This document provides a brief overview of Dr. Thompson's talk on records of changes in climate in general and the most significant implications of the ice core records of past climate changes in particular. Because climate processes that have operated in the past continue to operate today, ice core records are providing very valuable insights. Within the last two decades, long cores of glacial ice have been used to establish and improve the record of past changes in climate. Analysis of ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland and tropical and subtropical areas have provided a wealth of detailed information on past climate changes. As the ice in these glaciers and ice sheets grew over time, layer by layer, tiny pockets of air were trapped within each layer, preserving a continuous record of the natural changes in the concentrations of greenhouse and other gases. In addition, these ice cores have preserved indirect/proxy records of changes in temperature (which can be closely estimated from the isotopic record of oxygen trapped in the ice), in the concentration of windblown dust, and in volcanic activity. By combining this information, these ice cores have preserved a 200,000-year history of climate changes and factors contributing to these …

In this USGRP Seminar, speakers try to answers questions like:What is the current status of hurricane track prediction? What caused the record number of Atlantic tropical storms in 1995? Are we witnessing a change in the number and frequency of tropical storms? Do these storms represent a changing climate? What will tropical storms be like in a greenhouse warmer world?

This brief report describes that the Earth's climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The buildup of greenhouse gases-primarily carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons-is changing the radiation balance of the planet. The basic heat-trapping property of these greenhouse gases is essentially undisputed. However, there is considerable scientific uncertainty about exactly how and when the Earth's climate will respond to enhanced greenhouse gases. The direct effects of climate change will include changes in temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and sea level. Such changes could have adverse effects on ecological systems, human health, and socio-economic sectors.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities."

Documentation resulting from an international workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal, 30 March - 2 April 1996. The following themes were addressed by the working groups: 1. "Role of ecology and hydrology for the sustainable development in mountain regions" (the "human dimensions"). 2. "Coupled ecological and hydrological studies along altitudinal gradients in mountain regions", with a sub-group dealing with the "Assessment of the spatial distribution pattern of basic water balance components." 3. "Impacts of global change on the ecology and hydrology in mountain regions", with a sub-group on the "Identification of global change impacts on hydrology and ecology in high mountain areas."

This is a study of projected near-term health benefits associated with greenhouse (GHG) reductions resulting from changes in energy efficiency and structure of energy use in the power and household sectors of China. The work was commissioned by the former Office of Global and Integrated Environmental Health at WHO, in order to explore the scope for modelling in the assessment of such short-term health benefits. China was selected as an appropiate case study for this work, as it fulfilled most of the criteria required, including the fact that it is a large country, with data sets available on air pollution and health, and with information on projected trends in the consumption of fossil fuels

The IGBP Wetlands workshop (Santa Barbara, CA, USA,16-20 May 1996) was held for the purpose of identifying data and research needs for characterizing wetlands in terms of their role in biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles. Wetlands cover only about 1% of the Earth's surface, yet are responsible for a much greater proportion of biogeochemical fluxes between the land surface, the atmosphere and hydrologic systems. They play a particularly important function in processing methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulphur as well as in sequestering carbon. Considerable progress has been made in the past 10 years regarding wetlands and methane: a global digital dataset of wetlands (Matthews and Fung 1987) was produced and global observations of methane have been combined with global three-dimensional atmospheric modelling (Fung et al. 1991) to constrain modelled fluxes of methane from high-latitude wetlands. Furthermore, significant advances have been made in understanding the biogeochemical processes that control fluxes of methane and other trace gases. The progress has made clear that present wetland classification schemes do not accurately reflect their roles in these processes because they have been based on wetland attributes such as dominant plant types which do not reflect differences in the functions of wetlands regarding biogeochemical cycles. …

The U.S. GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROGRAM (USGCRP) supports activities that provide information and policy-relevant understanding about the coupling of human activities and the environment across a broad range of issues, perspectives, and interactions. Global change research focuses on providing scientific insight into critical global change issues and policy choices facing the nation and the world community. Global change research to address these issues is organized into a flexible multidisciplinary framework for coordinating science activities. Each global change issue is addressed through a process which strives to document, understand, predict, and assess the science in a way that yields results that are relevant to the needs of decision makers. The USGCRP is founded on the premise that international cooperation and coordination is fundamental to addressing global environmental issues. USGCRP programs significantly contribute to worldwide global change research efforts

This report describes the strategy for the Miombo Network Initiative, developed at an International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) intercore-project workshop in Malawi in December 1995 and further refined during the Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) Open Science Meeting in January, 1996 and through consultation and review by the LUCC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). The Miombo Network comprises of an international network of researchers working in concert on a 'community' research agenda developed to address the critical global change research questions for the miombo woodland ecosystems. The network also addresses capacity building and training needs in the Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (SAF) region, of the Global Change System for Analysis Research and Training (START). The research strategy described here provides the basis for a proposed IGBP Terrestrial Transect study of land cover and land use changes in the miombo ecosystems of Central Africa. It therefore resides administratively within the LUCC programme with linkages to other Programme Elements of the IGBP such as Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE). The report provides the framework for research activities aimed at understanding how land use is affecting land cover and associated ecosystem processes; assessing what contribution these changes are making to global change; …

This document is intended to assist Federal agencies with analyzing cumulative effects during the NEPA process. It outlines general principles, common cumulative effects assessment methodologies, and resources for additional information and background data.

This report contains English-translated abstracts of important Chinese-language literature concerning global climate change for the years 1995-1998. This body of abstracts includes the topics of adaption, ancient climate change, climate variation, the East Asia monsoon, historical climate change, impacts, modeling, and radiation, and trace gas emission. In addition to the bibliographic citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Chinese. Author and title index are included to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest.